Ducktails + Spectrals – Trof NQ, Manchester 22/09/10

There are few things that can quite raise the levels of hype quite so much as collaboration. Just as preteens got overexcited as Kanye West and Justin Bieber discussed their possible collaboration, Pitchfork watchers in the UK surely must’ve been salivating once it became clear that Spectrals would be playing as the backing band for Real Estate’s side project Ducktails. And so, to an expectant, sweaty upstairs room in Manchester, the coming together of two would-be heavyweights played out seemingly in technicolour to an almost bewildered crowd.

The otherworldly, parallel universe feel was hardly discouraged by the support band. Bringing the room to virtual silence, Dolphins Into The Future’s ambient experiments in casiotone managed to turn a bustling room into a sedated one, as if codeine was coming straight out of the various tapes repeatedly being swapped rather than warped samples and keyboard loops. When confronted with the kind of music you’d like to hear throughout therapy whilst trapped in a sweltering room amongst strangers, it’s difficult to know what to do. Most, it must be said, simply went outside for a cigarette.

But the headline event itself could’ve hardly been expected to be a party started. The clash of the hipster titans it may have been, but with their laid back groove and swinging riffs, Spectrals themselves should’ve been the perfect fit for Mondanile’s expansive soundscapes. And, all things considered, it’s a coming together that works, with the relatively simplistic sound of Ducktails benefitting from a fuller sound and the band itself revelling in time off from the dayjob. ‘Landrunner’ particularly manages to impress, a kind of bizarre psychedelic take on the better aspects of stadium rock that manages to get the first few rows of people moving their feet in all it’s psychedelic glory. Whilst the songs invite you to get lost inside them on record, live they positively insist – a swirling maze of idea and sound.

But any enjoyment has to be lined with regret. This experiment clearly works, and gloriously so as languid album tracks are brought to life and given infinitely more depth by the skill backing it up, whilst the guys themselves seem to revel in each other’s presence. But whilst good, it’s a world away from the phenomena that could’ve been hoped for, which is still no crime in itself – but that’s the curse of the super group – to never quite be the sum of its parts, to inadvertently promise so much by mere presence alone. When an encore is half-heartedly cajoled, any lingering hope that there might be something special is dashed – no coming together of ideas, no covering of one another’s songs, just Ducktails tracks, backed by three people who just happen to be in Spectrals. Beautiful, but not breathtaking, no matter how much it was dreamt otherwise.